The Amphitheatre at Royal Natal National Park is one of the most iconic spots in the whole of the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, part of the Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park in South Africa. It’s formed by a rock wall about 5 kilometres long and about 1,200 metres high resulting in one of the most impressive cliff faces on earth. To give an idea of it’s size, it’s roughly three times the size of the total combined area of all the cliff faces in Yosemite’s famous El Capitan in the USA! It is home to the Tugela Falls, which at 948m high is the second highest waterfall in the world after the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the Tugela River originating at Mont-Aux-Sources a few kilometres away.

There are some wonderful tourist facilities at the park: Thendele Resort offers a number of self catering accommodation units from basic 2 bed chalets to a magnificent six-bed luxury lodge. For those preferring things closer to nature, Mahai Campsite has around 120 large sites, some electrified and some not, and there are laundry and dish washing facilities available. More basic camping is available at Rugged Glen nearby which also offers Horseback trails. Royal Natal National Park is really about walking and experiencing the beautiful surrounds, the hiking trails varying from short easy walks around Mahai Camp and the Reception Centre to longer, more strenuous ones like the trail to the Tugela Gorge.

We recently drove up to Royal Natal National Park early one morning to shoot some time lapse videos of the scenery and arrived to cloudy, overcast conditions. Lucky the sun peeped through the clouds just after sunrise providing some dramatic lighting, the Amphitheatre reflecting in the dams close to the Reception Centre. This image was shot on the Canon 5Ds R and the lovely 8-15mm fisheye lens, while the video cameras did their thing with the time lapses. The resulting photograph shows typical fisheye distortions but a little work in Adobe Lightroom and with Photoshop CC’s Adaptive Wide Angle filter sorted things out.

Buffalo Birth

Have you witnessed a buffalo birth? We’ve only seen one… There is a place in Mala Mala Game Reserve in South Africa called Buffalo Pans. It is an area of shallow pans and wallows fringed by tall trees and shrubs, which offer marvellous shade during the heat of the day and in summer the animals love it and so did we. On one occasion we arrived to find a large herd of buffalo milling about in quite an agitated state.

No sooner had we wondered what was unsettling them when we saw a young leopard in the undergrowth, eyeing a huge bull that was grazing not far off. Incredibly the cat appeared ready to take on what looked to be an 800 kg animal. It is not unusual for male leopards of about 18 months to have a rather misplaced sense of invincibility and this one was obviously flexing its muscles to prove to itself and the world that its hunting ability was incomparable.

As we manoeuvred cautiously forward, the leopard made its move and darted past our vehicle. In the blink of an eye no fewer than four massive bulls had surrounded the cat, lowering their huge heads in a sort of crazed rugby scrum, their horns and bosses crashing together. Their angry bellows filled the air and we held our breath as they separated, expecting to see the leopard squashed into the dust.

But it was nowhere to be seen.

Miraculously it had slipped out from underneath them and taken refuge in a tree, from where it looked down over the herd, panting. The minutes ticked by and the temperature rose steadily as we waited to see what would happen next. The two buffaloes that had positioned themselves beneath the tree stamped the ground impatiently and began to move off. As if on cue the leopard stirred. It came down the trunk in a flash, dashed between them with great bravado and rushed up another tree, the bulls not as quick to respond this time round. Then, with a self-satisfied air, the cat yawned and stretched, positioned itself more comfortably on a branch and promptly fell asleep.

The buffalo herd however remained restless. It was not until we drove a short distance further on that we understood why. In a small clearing a cow was giving birth, the front legs and nose of her calf already showing. As she strained and pushed several other females hovered close by and one even appeared to want to hurry things along by hooking the calf out with her horns. As we watched time seemed to stand still and then suddenly it was all over and the calf lay in a wet trembling heap at its mother’s feet.

Buffalo Pans had produced many good game sightings in the past, but on this occasion it really delivered – in more ways than one.

The African or cape buffalo, one of the most successful grazers in Africa, is a very large and strong animal, widespread in the majority of swamps, floodplains, mopane grasslands and forests of Africa. They prefer thick cover but can also be found in open woodland. A buffalo’s height at the shoulder can vary from about 1 to about 1.8m and they can be as much as 3.5m long, a large male weighing about 900kg! Unusually, the horns of the African buffalo males fuse at their base forming a heavy mound of bone called the “boss” and the spread of the horns can be a metre wide.

Mating and births generally occur only during the rainy season, birthing happening first and then mating peaking late in the season. The gestation period is about 11.5 months and the new born call will be kept hidden in thick undergrowth for the first few weeks of its life. The calves suckle from behind, from between its mother’s hind legs, rather than in front of them like many other species.

Black Sunbird Chicks

We have some tree ferns growing right next to the verandah at our home in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands in South Africa and a pair of amethyst or black sunbird have selected this as the ideal place for their nest. Pat and I have been keeping and eye on things and the chicks are getting bigger and bigger by the day. Demanding does not come close to the attitude of the chicks and the poor, exhausted (surely?) parents bring a steady stream of insects to keep the kids’ huge appetites satisfied. It’s wonderful to watch the whole, frenetic process…

The amethyst sunbird (also called the black sunbird) (Chalcomitra amethystina) is a species of passerine bird which are widespread residents of woodland, mesic savanna, forest edges and, lucky for us, suburban gardens. Nests are attached to a drooping branch or hidden by foliage and are built from fine grass stems, bound together with cobwebs and are often decorated with lichens or other debris.

A Giraffe Birth.

We were staying at Tuli Safari Lodge in Botswana and were very fortunate, late one afternoon, to come across a giraffe birth.

It was the stillness of the giraffe that first got our attention. As we approached she moved slightly and we saw why she stood so quietly. She was giving birth, the front legs and nose of her calf already visible. As the late afternoon sun beat down a miracle unfolded before us in the dusty veld in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve.

She strained forward suddenly and the calf’s head appeared and then time stood still as we waited for the shoulders to emerge. It was an anxious wait, which seemed to stretch endlessly into the approaching dusk. If we had noticed her predicament, there was every chance that the reserve’s predators would have too. She looked like a young giraffe and we wondered if this was perhaps her first pregnancy. And then, almost as if our concerns prodded fate, two jackals materialised from the scraggy bushes behind her and she moved off a short distance, luckily not very far and still within the range of our camera lenses. The intruders sniffed the area, lost interest and headed elsewhere to hunt, much to our relief, as Tuli’s jackals can be demons at harassment.

She lowered her long neck again as she pushed and almost imperceptibly more of her calf started to show. Suddenly its

shoulders were out and then with incredible grace it arched its long body and landed with a plop on the dusty earth in a great whoosh of amniotic fluid. She licked her new arrival with her long black tongue and nudged it with her nose to encourage it to stand. The calf tottered repeatedly to its feet only to wobble about and collapse in an unhappy heap of shaky knees and trembling limbs. The shadows grew longer as time passed and then in the fading light it finally stood and nuzzled its mother for a drink.

We cheered them both, unashamedly emotional.

Some interesting facts about giraffes:

The name “giraffe” has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zarafah which means “fast-walker.

The gestation period for giraffes varies between 400 and 460 days after which a single calf is usually born – rarely twins.

As, is obvious, the mother give birth standing up and the new born animal slides out and “plops” onto the ground rather than falling down. The mother then grooms the youngster and encourages it to stand, something that is not easy on very wobbly legs, but after a few hours it is capable of running around.

The species name camelopardalis is from Latin.

The family Giraffidae has but 2 species in it – the one is the giraffe and the other the okapi.

Pat and I had the great fortune to visit Jaci’s lodges in Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa, a week or so ago and absolutely loved it. We’ve been there in the past – a number of times – because this is one of the places where we run our photographic safaris. Previously, we’ve always stayed at the Safari Lodge but this time Jaci booked us in to Tree Lodge and we were most taken with it.

Tree Lodge consists of eight large, air-conditioned, luxurious, elevated chalets, secluded in the riverine bush along the edge of the Marico River, and a central lounge/dining/boma area where guests can spend time reading and chilling.

On the edge of a nearby waterhole is a sleeping platform where you can overnight if your heart desires (and it should – it’s fantastic), and in the middle of the waterhole is the Terrapin Hide (#terrapinhide) offering water level views of elephant, antelope, lion and other species as they come down to drink. We spent quite a bit of time there as you can imagine!

It was the game that drives we loved though. JR, our guide, was informed, knowledgable and professional, and showed us a great, unhurried experience the in the bush. We had ample time on sightings with no need to rush off to the next one.

We recently spent a few days with William and his wife, Mary, at their lovely home, working through some of our wildlife and landscape photography, and printing some of the images on his archival, large format printers. William is a genius when it comes to printing having studied under Mac Holbert and John Paul Caponigro at the Brooks Institute in the USA. And it shows. Our photographs have never looked this good.

Here are a few images of our work hanging in the gallery and if you’d like to have a look at these, our African Icons book, and some of the other prints hanging there, give William a call or pop in to the Gallery – he’s passionate about the craft – you’d enjoy it: 12 Royal Street, Riebeek Kasteel, Western Cape, South Africa. Phone: +27 (22) 448 1104.

Surely, one of the most beautiful sights in the world must be Table Mountain and the 12 Apostles in Cape Town, South Africa. The Khoikhoi called this rather large lump of rock Hoerikwaggo and it owes it table-top to the fact that it is a syncline mountain, meaning that it originally was the bottom of a valley.

Table Mountain and 12 Apostles viewed from Lion’s Head.

Table Mountain home to about 1 500 species of bird, and to put this into perspective, more than occur in the entire United Kingdom. To say that Table Mountain and its environs have a spectacularly rich biodiversity is quite an understatement, its vegetation consisting for the most part of several different types of unique Cape Fynbos.

Rooistompie (Mimetes cucullatus). Kirstenbosch Gardens.

Birdlife too is stunning, particularly when the fynbos is flowering, sunbirds and sugarbirds creating flashes of colour between the blooms.

Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer) on pincushion.

What to do: The easy way up is via the cable car but you can also walk. It takes 2 to 3 hours up Platteklip Gorge, depending on you fitness levels (it’s not for the sedentary by the way) and once up, there a number of hiking trails to explore. Or, just take in a glass of the Cape’s lovely wines and watch the sun drop into the Atlantic Ocean – dinner awaits at one of the thousands of restaurants in the city below. There are mountain bike trails (not on top, but in the area), bird watching is awesome, caving, and rock climbing for the more athletic amongst us.

Some seriously wild places in Alaska, like the Prince William Sound near Whittier. Such a wonderful trip with @26glaciers, the Manfrotto Bumblebee backpacks an Panasonic GH5 cameras acquitting themselves well in the cold, wet conditions. Check out the full gallery: Click the link in our bio, go to Browse and select the Alaska Gallery. ...

Hell’s Gate National Park can be found south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya and is named after a narrow break in the cliffs that looks so good in early morning light. It’s a small national park, known for its wildlife and scenery which include the Fischer’s Tower and Central Tower volcanic columns (plugs) and Hell’s Gate Gorge. There is quite a bit of volcanic activity happening with hot, sulphurous springs and steam escaping from the ground, particularly in the gorge and the park is also home to three geothermal power stations at Olkaria.

From a photographic point of view, the best time to visit is in the very early morning when the cliffs and Fischer’s Tower light up beautifully just after sunrise as in the panoramic photo below. This (and, we had only a few minutes light here before it all went great and overcast) one was made up of 5 individual shots and stitched using the Photo Merge function of Adobe Lightroom CC.

We had fun in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania while working on our African Icons book. Yes, there was a huge amount of pressure to bring back images and video material for the book but there was still time to “play” with photography, experimenting with long exposures to create motion blur, being just one example.

For this pic of a wildebeest running I dropped the ISO right down to 31 on the Nikon D810, giving a shutter speed of just 1/10 at f5.6 on the Nikon AF-S 80-400. Smooth panning is a must – follow through – don’t stop panning when you trip the shutter release. You do get a lot of duds but occasionally something interesting pops up.

At Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana (http://mashatu.com) there is a small, stunted baobab tree clinging to life at the end of a rocky ridge near the Maloutse River in the west of the reserve. It’s a quiet, eerie place; the silence in the evenings broken only by the calls of jackal and hyenas getting ready for the night’s forage.

On the west side of the tree, facing the setting sun, the initials CJR and ADS are carved into the the bark, and some say that they belong to Cecil John Rhodes and his secretary/friend Antonio da Silva. Certainly Rhodes was in the region in the late 1800s surveying a route for his famous (infamous?) railway line that was to run from Cape to Cairo. Who knows though…

It was also the site of an ancient settlement, the Mmamagwa people lived and thrived here around 1200 AD. Alas, they are no more but their spirit remains in this desolate place.

It’s one of our favourite spots and we have spent many an hour there over the years, just enjoying the piece and solitude.

We shot this panoramic photograph while working on our African Icons Book. Please mail us if you are interested in acquiring a copy.